Investors back Hamilton pharmacist’s expansion into US market

Wednesday, 8 July 2026

A Hamilton pharmacist who’s crowdfunded more than $420,000 is “nose to the grindstone” trying to crack the US market with NZ-made medications.

Tim O’Donoghue is the co-founder and chief executive of Healthtex, a pharmaceutical start-up looking to change how people access over-the-counter medications.

The company’s already selling one product through Amazon: New Zealand-made Asteroid haemorrhoid cream. It received its over-the-counter FDA listing in July 2025 and launched in the United States market in January.

Now, O’Donoghue said the company was “nose to the grindstone” after a PledgeMe campaign raised $420,700 in capital from 112 New Zealand investors.

He said it was fantastic that many of the investors who had pledged funds in the campaign were unknown to him, meaning they’d “read about it and thought this is something they’d really like to be a part of”.

The new funding will support a major commercial push for Asteroid in the US, with Healthtex aiming to grow sales before rolling out its next four over-the-counter products - a range of digestive medications.

“[It’s] really exciting because it's really the last step in the process before it all really starts to take off. It's just bridging across to the next milestone,” O’Donoghue said.

He added the campaign helped prove there was strong support for the company and that “people are interested and understand the opportunities that are there to be part of something like this”.

“We always wanted to have community involved… That ethos is hard baked into everything we do, really.”

Each person who pledged in Healthtex would hold equity in the company and become a shareholder.

Since its release on e-commerce platforms earlier this year, Asteroid has been well-received among American consumers, with one customer describing it as a “miracle” cream.

Success in the US would also create more work in New Zealand, where the medicines are manufactured in Nelson and Auckland under contract.

“The busier it gets, the more work there is at these contract manufacturers… it’s going to make jobs,” O’Donoghue said.

“We’ve already had a case where the contract manufacturer had to create a whole new workflow over a weekend, which wouldn’t normally happen, to meet some demand for New Zealand [Asteroid cream] - which was great news.”

Asteroid is only the start, he said. Healthtex has 14 products, ranging from digestive to allergy medications, set to be rolled out by the end of next year.

While the company has global ambitions, Hamilton will always be home for O’Donoghue.

“It's a really great place to be,” he said.

“One minute you're sitting in a busy meeting in Los Angeles talking about your company and the next morning you're back in Hamilton.”